Seven best practices for creating a sales culture: transitioning from an internally‐focused, transaction‐oriented culture to a customer‐focused, sales‐oriented culture

Ninety‐four per cent of the bankers who responded to a recent survey think that establishing a sales culture is very important to their institution’s success, yet less than half had actually instituted even the most rudimentary reforms. This article outlines the reasons which make the transition to a sales culture imperative, describes the basic features of organizational culture in general and sales culture in particular, and presents seven best practices that facilitate the painstaking process of transition to a sales culture in banks. The strategies discussed increase sales per employee, improve cross‐selling to high‐value customers, and enable banks to focus on solving customer needs to the mutual benefit of both parties. It requires providing consistently excellent service quality and sales and customer interaction training for all boundary‐spanning employees.